Vettel said: "They are bloody quick in qualifying...they seem to be in a different world on Saturday afternoons, but points are scored on Sunday and the last few races have been pretty good for us."

MCLAREN MISERY

Force India's Paul Di Resta and Daniel Ricciardo, the Toro Rosso driver bidding for Webber's drive in 2014, will line up together on the third row.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, 36 points behind Vettel in the championship, qualified 10th in a disappointing performance from the Italian team, who had Felipe Massa in 12th place.

Alonso said: "We were not competitive all weekend and it's not normal to see Ferrari out of Q3 (the third phase of qualifying).

"We need to recover now and it was a bad Saturday. We didn't improve the car enough in the last four to five races and we ordered some new parts but they didn't do what we expected. We need to keep on working."

McLaren had another miserable qualifying, with 2009 world champion Jenson Button 11th on the grid and team mate Sergio Perez 14th.

Former champions Williams, who have made their home race a celebration of their 600 grands prix in the sport, fared even more dismally.

Valtteri Bottas failed to make it through the first phase and qualified 17th behind team mate Pastor Maldonado in 16th.

24.com publishes all comments posted on articles provided that they adhere to our Comments Policy. Should you wish to report a comment for editorial review, please do so by clicking the 'Report Comment' button to the right of each comment.